


Do I Have No Hope of You At All?

by nuestinsync



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Emma AU, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, adaptation of emma, austen - Freeform, mention jaehyun, mention johnny, mention winwin, period drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26599120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuestinsync/pseuds/nuestinsync
Summary: Oblivious Donghyuck played matchmaker but one such as he ought never to try.Based on Emma, a simplified ficin medias resEmma Woodhouse - Donghyuck LeeMr Knightley – Mark LeeHarriet Smith - Yuta NakamotoRobert Martin - Sicheng DongJane Fairfax - Jaehyun JungFrank Churchill - Johnny Suh
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

“Just stop it, now.” 

The man paused his remonstrations.

“What are you doing, Donghyuck? You thought you had everyone’s problems solved. Thought you saw inside everyone’s heads, but turns out you missed a few things!” 

He turned his back to him, fighting to sound calmer. 

“Badly done, Donghyuck. Badly done.” 

And with that, Mark stormed out the open door.

*** 

Donghyuck sat straight-backed and contrite, expression fluctuating between resignation and helpless remorse. Beside him, his companion was a little bemused, though he did not show it. 

“You do not know how sorry I am. I never meant to cause the chaos I did. I honestly believed I was acting with your best interests, but I see now, it wasn’t so. I got so carried away, I was quite blinded by what I thought was the only thing that would make you happy. And I’m so sorry.” 

The words hung heavy in the air between the two friends, but a paradoxical lightness returned to their meeting, as if candour was the one thing to bring them back to their old easiness, the good-humour that so transparently held their care and affection with nothing to stand in between. 

“I suppose all I can say is, you’re forgiven. Of course, how could I not forgive you,” Yuta replied slowly, gazing back without reserve now at his closest friend, “I see that I was caught up in a fantasy and you pulled me out. I’m grateful. The time I’ve lost with the only man I really want, well, I will make that up. You are the one person who was truly welcoming to me and took me under your wing, so to speak. I know this still and I am indebted still. I could never cast you aside, dear Hyuck.” 

At these final words, Donghyuck threw his undeserving self into his friend’s arms and hugged him. He could not believe how he had almost ruined their friendship through sheer pig-headedness. _Maybe_ , he thought, _maybe if Yuta could forgive me… But Yuta is too good, too good for this world. Mark might never speak to me again for what I’ve done. What I’ve connived and how far I let it get away from me_. Silently, Donghyuck prayed that he could find a way to repent to the others he was yet to apologise to.

*** 

With Mark’s parting words still ringing in his ears, Donghyuck stepped into the Jung residence to see Jaehyun's aunt. Without causing further dishonour, he did not apologise with crude words, but brought delicate foods, offered to run errands and spent more time with his family’s old friend. He no longer carried his high pride and reckoned it higher than the opinion of most people in a room, but treated his duty with more compassion than he ever had before in that residence. 

It was when he was leaving, having paid more attention of late to the warm homeliness and becoming, quaint nature of its contents, that Donghyuck paused to reflect that perhaps he had had more things wrong that right. Mrs Jung continued to be a force of nature in their society, always out to accompany friends or younger gentlemen and ladies, to be of any help she could, when she was not entertaining Donghyuck’s family, that is. She was invaluable. And Donghyuck was just learning to appreciate the value of those members of their small village whose value he had never tried to nor could measure.


	2. Chapter 2

Donghyuck tallied his mistakes. First, he had match-made his closest friend and been _very, very wrong_. Then, he’d misread the signs between said-friend and the gallivanting, charming gentleman everyone liked, who had taken the town by a storm when he had suddenly rode in all those months ago. A whole secret relationship had completely escaped his skills of observation and honestly, if that was not a great enough blow to his pride, to be _lambasted_ by Mark of all people, his frenemy, mentor, most dear childhood friend. And now, finally, in the wake of the eloped lovers, things would return to normal but he would continue to bear the shame, slight humiliation at the hands of Johnny’s pseudo-courting, and overall alienation from all those who had not behaved as ill as himself. Donghyuck was at wits end for how to handle the next steps. 

Strolling the gardens as if he were his carefree self of a month ago, the tears welled in Donghyuck’s eyes once more at the thought that Mark might arrive soon to tell him what he could not bear to hear. All morning, he had awaited the arrival and dreaded that he must listen; there was no excuse he could give, was there, as the confidante friend? No, none. Yuta had come to the conclusion himself that Sicheng was it for him; on the other hand, Mark would come striding over at any moment and tell him that Yuta was the object of his love, the only love Donghyuck had ever had an inkling that Mark felt for anyone in his life, and that he wanted proposal advice from their mutual friend. Mark did not know that Yuta’s heart had returned to where it had always been lost. Another huge blunder that he fully intended to grovel for if he had inadvertently encouraged anything, particularly on the side of Yuta. How quick Yuta had thrown over the idea and confessed that, of course, Sicheng was the love of his life, another chance, were it possible, would make him the happiest young man in the county… Donghyuck sincerely hoped that Mark would keep it to himself just a little longer that he might compose himself. 

But there he was, in his smart britches, immaculate neck cloth shining in the sun and by now a signal to Donghyuck from a mile away. He quickly swiped his tears off his cheeks. 

“Donghyuck!” called Mark. 

“Mark,” Donghyuck replied, falling into step with Mark once he had caught up. 

“So you have heard the news?” 

“It is quite incredible. I feel so ridiculous, I can barely stand to face you…” 

Mark sighed deeply and turned, halting, to look straight at him. 

“Time, Donghyuck. Time will heal all of this.” 

Donghyuck’s brow wrinkled, he stopped in his steps and stood straighter. 

“You are being too kind to me. Apart from my own behaviour, which I will always regret and strive to remedy, never daring to matchmake neither friend nor acquaintance in future, nothing else has been hurt. My feelings, regarding Johnny, that is.” 

Mark’s expression transformed into curious confusion but he nodded once and relaxed his posture. Yet then, he tensed all over again. 

“He disgusts me. He has fooled everybody and behaved shoddily to them all, yet they are ready to welcome him with open arms not a day after. He is rewarded with a fiancé he does not deserve.” Mark laughed mirthlessly, looking at their surroundings as if to focus his outburst away from Donghyuck and thereby mitigate its damage. Perhaps he still did not believe that Donghyuck had not had feelings for Johnny. 

“He will misuse another innocent, Jaehyun, too. Every obstacle in his way is gotten rid of and no one shuns him. All is forgiven without a meaningful apology. So very lucky.” 

“You speak as if you envied him.” 

“I do envy him. Respecting one of his many fortunes, I envy him.” 

Realisation flickered in Donghyuck’s eyes for Mark to see, but he turned away quickly. 

_It is true then. Mark envies Johnny that he can run away to elope with whomever he wants and the consequences will not be quite so punishing. He could never hope to do the same with Yuta, however._

“You will not ask me what I allude to. You know, I know you do, that something is amiss but you will not allow change between us if it were to be acknowledged. I cannot. I must tell you something, even if there is a chance of regret,” Mark said, nervously and in low tones. A point of no return was to be breached. 

“Then do not speak it.” 

The words poured out of Donghyuck too quickly for him to have dwelt on the consequences. Mark looked away to hide his anguish and resolved on taking the walk he had interrupted, turning abruptly. 

“Wait!” Donghyuck unfroze and hurried after him into the trees. 

He gazed back into Mark’s teary eyes with his to match, uttering, “I will listen. I am your closest friend and I will lend an ear to anything that you want to tell your closest friend and confidante.” 

At that, Mark darted away, frustration evident in his voice now, “Friend! That- that is just it, Donghyuck, please.” Mark turned back and moved closer to him. 

“Tell me, and tell me why, even if it will hurt me, do I have no hope of you at all?” 

Donghyuck startled, but he waited. He waited for more because he could not be sure. 

“My dearest companion, my dearest friend always and the only person I need in my life. Though I have tortured you with my lessons and reproaches, you have stayed by my side through it all. I cannot make speeches.” 

Donghyuck, tears in full flow now, laughed softly. 

“I know I am a poet but well, if I loved you less, I could talk about it more. You are like no other man I have met or ever will meet. You know exactly who I am. And- and you understand my feelings, do you not?” 

“Tell me what you think,” Mark finished, a hopeful glint in his eyes at the emotions playing out on Donghyuck's features. 

Smiling through eyes that laid bare fallen tears and rosy colour on his face, Donghyuck slowly reached up to place his hands both sides of Mark’s jaw. 

“I find… I do not know what to think.” 

And when they finally kissed, sweetly and for no one but themselves in that spring garden, Mark’s hands lay automatically on the sides of Donghyuck’s torso, so that he could simply feel him close.

**Author's Note:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING!, this has been in my drafts for too long! i recommend emma 2009 above all and if you don't have time to read/watch, mark is envious of johnny being the object of donghyuck's romantic aspiration, even if it was shallow or not based on attraction, but that he thought they would be a good couple and their personalities matched well (emma x frank churchill).


End file.
